What I Wore: Finding Balance

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

I feel sneaky when I wear this outfit. Its deceptively simple- a shirt and pants. But the stripes make you seem pulled-together, even on those days your hair keeps falling out of the up-do you've, um up-done, and you're constantly on the run from one place to the next. Its like a work wear secret weapon! While the red is fun with Valentine's day around the corner ( hey, I'm an elementary teacher, its practically in the job description that you coordinate with the holidays), Popbasic is doing a limited re-release of their original Le Breton Shirt. Its stripes are navy, not red, (and yes I have one of those too. I swear by these shirts. The Force stripes are strong with this one!) This link should get you a discount if your closet is laking a stripe or two.

So real moment here: I've been having a love-hate going on with sharing more work outfits with you all. On the one hand, obviously outfits like this are what I wear five days a week, and stylistically, its not all that different from my typical weekend uniform. Sharing these types of looks is honest and, I like to think, not without style. Still, the fact that so many work outfit outfits have shown up here lately seems to reflect the way work has been on my mind so constantly lately. While I LOVE my job, both The Boy and I can both be workoholics who get a bit consumed, and then bit burned out.

So, here's to trying very hard to keep an improved work-life balance. Teaching crazy-wonderful people interesting things, and collaborating with fantastic people is great, but enjoying health, home and family are too. Books and friends and, yes, hobbies are too. So, here's my focus and goals for the month: Going to yoga with my mom (and ideally one other exercise class, but we'll see), walking the dogs at least once a day on the weekends; calling at least one friend or family member every week; doing something with The Boy out, away from the house at least once a week. Maybe its silly that I need to be so deliberate about doing these, but I feel getting out in the sunshine more often, and focussing on the people, not the things to get done, will enrich all the areas of my life, work included. I'd like to get out some mail and care packages that have been sitting on our dining room table for all of January too, and to figure out a better skin care routine, and get some D vitims too, but at a bare minimum letting the people I love be a priority will make the meanest month more-love filled than any red paper heart ever could.

And, hey, wearing stripes for all those things totally will work too, right?

I totally hear you about work/life balance. I am very much a planner/routine person so I find that life works best when I plan what I need to do in advance. I also love seeing what other people wear to work because that is what pretty much all the looks I post on my blog are. I'm lucky that I don't have a dress code, but sometimes I think that is also the reason I struggle.

Yes and yes to getting out and focusing on people and simply being "out there" in the world existing a little more opposed to crossing to-do items off a list... I completely understand, and I, too, have been attempting a similar change in my life. It is so rewarding to spend a day with a close friend doing nothing but speaking of everything, or walking your dog, or talking a stroll to a new place. I'm rooting for you!

Yeah, dude. You gotta try to make that time for yourself. It's easy to just be a work-a-holic. Trust me. I know allllll about this. Hehe. One thing that I've learned is that even when I've convinced myself that there's no time, there's always time. You don't even have to make it. It's just..there. You have to just let go enough so that you can see it and use it. :P